I had the honor to receive an award on behalf of Objective Ed at CSUN recently.  Thanks to the team at Objective Ed, and for the help of advisors: Dianne, Anna and Penny.

The Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation is an annual prize of up to $10,000 awarded to a project, or projects, that show the most innovative idea in the field of braille and tactile literacy. Winners and applicants have submitted projects for professional software & apps, educational software and apps, gaming software or apps, and braille or tactile-related hardware or leaning paraphernalia.

The Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation is funded through support from The Gibney Family Foundation, since inception in 2007. The Gibney Family Foundation supports non-profit organizations to help them develop sustainable products and provide services or support.

Our innovation “Braille Sheets” works as follows:  You place a sheet of braille on an iPad, and then use your fingers to read the braille text.  As you move your fingers on the braille, the iPad announces the letters or words that your fingers are touching.  It’s great for teaching braille or improving braille comprehension and speed.  I’ll be posting some videos of this innovation in a few weeks.

Using Braille Sheets, we are developing games for early Braille literacy and practicing braille contractions.  Teachers have suggested dozens of other uses for this innovation, and we’ll be following their advice as we develop more curriculum-based games.

ObjectiveEd will be donating our monetary prize to an organization to provide tablets for low income students.

If you are interested in being an earlier tester of our “closed-loop” curriculum-based games, please reply to this email or contact me.